WE have considered changes in the ratio of labour to land
without accumulation, and accumulation with a constant ratio
of labour to land. We must now consider both types of change
together.

When population is increasing in a given space the law of
diminishing returns in its unsophisticated form is operating
and the share of rent in total income rises as time goes by
(unless there is a sufficiently strong land-saving bias in accumulation). This sets a drag upon the rise in real wages that
accompanies accumulation and technical progress; or, when
accumulation is so sluggish relatively to the growth in the
labour force that real wages are tending to fall, it helps to
reduce them.

In the latter case the absolute level of rents is not necessarily
raised by an increase in population. The fall in real wages
may be so great as to reduce total consumption and, when it is,
the fall in total output in the consumption sector may outweigh
the rise in rent per unit of output.

LAND AND SURPLUS LABOUR

When accumulation is falling behind the growth of population and the rise of output per head due to technical progress,
so that the demand for labour is not keeping pace with the
growth of the available supply, redundant labour tends to silt
up in the agricultural section of the economy. This happens
partly because, owing to a differential birth-rate between town
and country, the new workers first become available to agriculture, and are drawn off into industry only when the demand
for labour there is expanding fast enough to absorb them;

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